the richard b. fisher center for the performing arts at bard college THEEthel Smyth’s WRECKERS July 24 – August 2, 2015 About The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College Chair Jeanne Donovan Fisher The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, an environment for world-class artistic President Leon Botstein presentation in the Hudson Valley, was designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2003. presents Risk-taking performances and provocative programs take place in the 800-seat Sosnoff Theater, a proscenium-arch space, and in the 220-seat LUMA Theater, which features a flexible seating configuration. The Center is home to Bard College’s Theater & Performance and Dance Programs, and host to two annual summer festivals: SummerScape, which offers opera, dance, theater, operetta, film, and cabaret; and the Bard Music Festival, which celebrated its 25th year last August with “Schubert and His World.” The 2015 festival will be devoted to Carlos Chávez and the music of Mexico and the rest of Latin America. THE The Center bears the name of the late Richard B. Fisher, former chair of Bard College’s Board of Trustees. This magnificent building is a tribute to his vision and leadership. The outstanding arts events that take place here would not be possible without the contributions made by the Friends of the Fisher Center. We are grateful for their support WRECKERS and welcome all donations. By Ethel Smyth Director Thaddeus Strassberger American Symphony Orchestra Conductor Leon Botstein, Music Director Set Design Erhard Rom Costume Design Kaye Voyce Lighting Design JAX Messenger Projection Design Hannah Wasileski Hair and Makeup Design J. Jared Janas Sung in English, with English surtitles The 2015 SummerScape season is made possible in part through the generous support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, the Board of The Richard Sosnoff Theater B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, the Board of the Bard Music July 24 and 31 at 7:30 pm Festival, and the Friends of the Fisher Center, as well as grants from the National July 26, 29 and August 2 at 2 pm Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Running time for this performance is approximately two hours and 40 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission. To support opera rediscoveries at the Fisher Center, contact Development Manager Kieley Michasiow-Levy at [email protected] or 845-758-7987 Special support for this program is provided by Emily H. Fisher and John Alexander. The Wreckers The setting is the Cornish coast in the second half of the 18th century, at the time of the Wesleyan revival. Cast Adapted from the drama Les Naufrageurs by Henry Brewster Thirza Katharine Goeldner Avis Sky Ingram Chorus Master James Bagwell Pascoe Louis Otey Principal Music Coach David Sytkowski Mark Neal Cooper Assistant Director R. B. Schlather Lawrence Michael Mayes Assistant Conductor Zachary Schwartzman Tallan Dennis Petersen Stage Manager Lynn Krynicki Jack Kendra Broom Assistant Stage Manager Michelle Elias Harvey Peter Van Derick Assistant Stage Manager Kristy Matero One Man Daniel Hoy Costume Supervisor David Burke Assistant Costume Designer Sarah Gosnell Children Cecelia Coleman Assistant Lighting Designer Christopher Frey Emily Roca Choral Contractor Nancy Wertsch Gavin Roca Surtitle Creator Celeste Montemarano Surtitle Operators Celeste Montemarano and Danielle Sinclair Lighting Programmer Nick Ligon Chorus Scenery constructed and painted by Richard Blankenship, Mansion House Studios, 4 Soprano Richmond, Virginia. Lighting provided by Wall Entertainment. Automation provided by Miriam Chaudoir, Margaret Dudley, Maggie Finnegan, Jennifer Gliere, Laura Green, Global Scenic Services, Bridgeport, Connecticut. Video projectors provided by Nationwide Manami Hattori, Sarah Hawkey, Marie Mascari, Amy Rood, Elizabeth Smith, Video, New York, New York. Martha Sullivan, Carla Wesby Alto Sarah Bleasdale, Teresa Buchholz, Kit Emory, Agueda Fernandez, B. J. Fredricks, Mary Marathe, Martha Mechalakos, Guadalupe Peraza, Heather Petrie, AnnMarie Sandy, Abigail Wright Tenor Mark Donato, Sean Fallen, Alex Guerrero, John Cleveland Howell, Chad Kranak, Eric William Lamp, Mukund Marathe, Marc Molomot, Nathan Siler, Michael Steinberger, Tommy Wazelle Bass Blake Burroughs, Joseph Chappel, Daniel Hoy, Steven Hrycelak, Enrico Lagasca, Andrew Martens, Thomas McCargar, Gregory Purnhagen, Michael Riley, John Rose, Aaron Theno, Peter Van Derick 4 5 Synopsis Program Note Leon Botstein Act 1 A Cornish fishing village on a cliff above the sea It is hard to imagine an opera whose argument is more pertinent to our times than Ethel On their way to church, the villagers are drinking outside the tavern. Their preacher, Pascoe, Smyth’s The Wreckers. This is because Smyth, both in the choice of the story and the manner chastises them for drinking on the Sabbath. He tells them that this is why the Lord has of its musical setting, forged a synthesis between art and politics with uncanny power. That stopped sending them ships to plunder. Lawrence, the lighthouse keeper, has another synthesis mirrors her life and work. Born in 1858, she lived an unbelievably full life (recounted explanation: he has seen beacons burning on the cliffs and is certain someone is warning in her sprawling but spellbinding memoirs) and crossed paths with anyone who was some- ships of the danger. The villagers vow to find the traitor among them and destroy him. body. She died in 1944, a legend in her own time, an authentic pioneer and iconoclast. Mark, a young fisherman, had been courting Avis, the daughter of the lighthouse keeper. The Wreckers, which was premiered in 1906 in Leipzig, is Smyth’s finest achievement His affections have now turned toward Pascoe’s young wife, Thirza. Unaware that Avis is because of her brilliant exploitation of the potential political and moral impact of operatic spying on him, he serenades his new love while the other villagers are in church, and Avis form. In this work, music and drama, consistent with Romanticism and particularly the is furious to discover that Thirza returns Mark’s feelings. The villagers leave church inspired Wagnerian model, become more than pleasant distraction and entertainment. The human by Pascoe’s fiery sermon to commit further bloody acts of plunder. The preacher scolds his predicaments that evolve on stage transcend the personal, and the music turns the spec- wife for not attending the service, but Thirza responds that she can no longer endure the tacle of opera into an experience of ethical and political recognition that contests the con- merciless ways of the wreckers. A storm is brewing and a ship is drawn onto the rocks. The fines of narrow aesthetic criteria. men of the village anticipate the bounty soon coming their way. Avis denounces Pascoe as the traitor who has been warning the ships of danger. The men agree to keep a close watch Smyth’s own extraordinary courage as an individual—a woman composer and a lesbian on the preacher as they prepare for the grim task ahead. political activist who defied dominant expectations and norms—defines the work. In the foreground is the alarming power of fundamentalist religious conceit within a close-knit Act 2 community. The very opening line of the opera (sung by the chorus) states the claim: “God’s A desolate seashore at the base of the cliffs chosen people shall not pay the price of sin, for Jordan’s wave has washed them white.” Mark is collecting driftwood. He is the person responsible for the warning beacons. Just as Persuaded of their status as God’s elect, as instruments of a divine truth that trumps the he is about to light his fire, he hears Thirza calling. She hurries to him, warning that other vil- logic of human reason, ethics, and law, the chorus—the community—assumes the right to lagers are close by and that if he lights the fire they will see the flames and come to trap him. wreak violence on others, to steal, plunder, and kill with impunity. They are persuaded that The lovers embrace. At first Mark is intent on lighting his beacon, but when Thirza declares they are doing God’s work and pursuing a higher good. This insulates them from any sense her love for him he stops, realizing he is putting her in danger as well. Mark begs her to leave of wrongdoing, sin, or guilt. Pascoe and run away with him. She is reluctant at first, but gradually yields to his pleading. Triumphantly they seize the torch and ignite the bonfire together. Pascoe arrives just in time One of the consequences, as Smyth understood all too well, is the evisceration of any to see the lovers making their escape. He briefly sees his wife’s face in the moonlight and he notion of a rule of law that protects the freedom of the individual, the sanctity of every collapses on the beach. He is still unconscious when Avis and the men from the village arrive. human life, the right to life, liberty, and therefore dissent. Throughout the opera, the ideal Finding Pascoe near the beacon they are certain that he is the traitor. of the secular state in which religion is construed as a private choice, and the priority of individual and Enlightenment traditions of religious tolerance—including the protection of Act 3 atheism and agnosticism (all contexts indispensable to the life and work of an artist)—are The interior of a huge cave powerfully present by their terrifying absence on stage. The audience witnesses the failure A court of villagers has been convened and Lawrence has appointed himself as prosecutor of individual idealism and the willful destruction of love and hope by collective fanaticism.